Page 7 of Vacation Friends

As a second wind hit her, she fought to get to the surface and draw in a breath.

To survive.

Finally, she managed to resurface.

But her arms felt as if weighted ropes were attached. For every inch she swam closer to shore, the current pulled her back nearly a foot.

The ocean pulled her under again.

This was it. She was done. She couldn’t fight anymore.

Just then, arms swooped beneath her.

As her face rose above the surface, water spurted from her mouth. Her lungs gurgled.

Through blurry eyes, a man appeared in the darkness above her.

The man murmured something. Maybe, “It’s going to be okay. I’ll get you out of here.”

Between the ocean and the water jostling in her ears, she couldn’t be sure.

She coughed more, desperate to dispel the saltwater from her body.

Waves still pummeled her, though not as violently now. Instead, her body rocked back and forth with the waves as the man carried her to shore.

Could anyone survive these waves?

Or would both she and her savior become a vacation statistic?

And what about the man she’d tried to save? Where was he now?

Finally, the rocking stopped.

Everything went still as her body splayed against something wet and grainy.

Sand.

She coughed again, and water spurted from her mouth.

Maddie didn’t have time to recover. She needed to tell the man who’d saved her about the other man in the ocean.

She forced herself to sit up, still wheezing and breathless. She raised a shaky arm and pointed toward the rocks jutting from the water. “A man . . . out there . . . needs . . . help.”

Her vision cleared in time for her to see her rescuer’s eyes widen with alarm. “Someone else is in the ocean?”

Maddie nodded before having another coughing fit.

“Stay with her,” the man lifted his head and muttered.

A woman dropped to her knees beside her and grasped Maddie’s hand. “It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be fine. Paramedics are on the way.”

Paramedics? That meant the police might come also.

The cops were the last people Maddie wanted to see.

But she didn’t have the strength to argue.

Besides, all she could think about was that man.

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